The panto that changed my life: “Aladdin demonstrated the quiet joy of laughter – he made me celebrate my own silliness” | Bantu season

WWhen I was a kid, I didn’t go to bantos. I was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, where I lived until I was twelve years old. Years later, when my nephew Nicholas was five years old, I discovered it for the first time – and it was through his eyes. We saw one of these in Stratford East and was blown away by how gorgeous everything was and how colorful it was. His teammates were in the audience and that was great too. This became a tradition that we tried to maintain until, of course, it became too cool for the school. Panto audiences are different, they have a ‘response-ability’, which I think is interesting when you go as a big family. You are encouraged to disrupt the action that is happening and do your best as a child to help the good person do the right thing.

Vicky Stone’s Aladdin at Lyric Hammersmith in London in 2021 really changed my perspective on what panto can do. It was just after lockdown, and you got rid of everything you could: the out-of-our-heads silliness of those times, those crazy press briefings – there was also a Boris Johnson look-alike, and there are few things more fascinating than him. It left no one out and came with the quiet joy of laughter combined with a little music and dancing. It was captivating.

Although I am known for my work that directly interacts with the audience, I was struck by the way they achieved that feeling, that special vertigo.

Actors have to be in the moment – ​​they are playing a character, but they are also reading and interacting with the audience. I think that’s a really hard thing to get right. I also think it’s a particularly African thing, because in South Africa, we sing, dance and act almost simultaneously. Movement is always part of your expression and so is music. In Britain, I think panto is the only time I’ve seen this combination.

I am a gay person from Zimbabwe and have written plays about Robert Mugabe and the trauma of migration. I have no problem being a writer about these things, but Aladdin changed the course of my work. This took me out of the “black/African work” box, and allowed me to lean into my silliness, while at the same time celebrating my tendency towards subtlety. You need that to have a good panto.

And can you believe it? So here we are, fully embracing an Afrocentric woman in Mama Goose, which I co-wrote with Vicki. And Nicholas, now a talented DJ, got his ticket. I hope I make him proud.

Mama Goose is at the Theater Royal Stratford East, London, until 3 January